The Pakistan foreign office presented before the media the director of Forte Pakistan, Asad Gul, who claimed he had recognised Iftikhar Choudhry Khan on television as an employee of his company until last November.

Earlier, Pakistan authorities claimed that Khan, who defected to the United States seeking asylum in protest against the alleged Pakistani plan to launch a nuclear attack on India, was in fact only an assistant accountant with a private company dealing in tiles and bathroom fittings.

Though one Asad Shaikh, claiming to be a director of that company, appeared on Pakistan television a couple of days ago and declared that Khan had worked for the company till last year, a fax sentto newspaper offices here yesterday declared that, ``the Frontier Ceramics Ltd, manufacturer of Forte tiles and sanitary, has nothing do with either Iftekhar Choudhry or Asad Shaikh,'' media reports said.

The fax message was signed by Lt Col (retd) Saddat Hussain with his designation mentioned as Forte Director (Administration). Choudhry's attorney in New York, Michael Wildes has also strongly contested Pakistani authorities' claim that his client was not a nuclear scientist but an accountant. Wildes told a TV channel that Choudhry's father had stated that his son worked in a company that makes bathroom tiles following threats to the family from the Pakistani intelligence services.

The spokesman described Khan as a ``petty fake and fraud who is looking for green card and fell into the hands of various types of people like Wilde.''